Through a Glass, Brightly
by turbomagnus
Summary: :Power Rangers Literati 14: What might have been is a question everyone asks themselves, even the Dark Ranger.


Disclaimer: While I don't own the overall concept of Power Rangers, Zords, and all else that goes with it, I, along with the friends that are involved with the story, do own Power Rangers Literati itself and its componants.

* * *

Power Rangers Literati  
"Through a Glass, Brightly"  
By J.T. Magnus, "Turbo"

* * *

Jon, morphed as the Dark Ranger and leading a group of Hardshells in destroying the city looked down as a rose flew through the air and stuck into the ground at his feet. With a groan, the Dark Ranger looked up...

"Oh, no..."

J.T. was standing on a rooftop. That, in itself, wasn't abnormal. The fact that he was wearing a cape and tophat on over his Ranger uniform and holding another rose in his hand, however, was.

"Trying to destroy the scenery of Scenic again, Dark Ranger? Don't you know by now that whatever you do, we'll always rise up to knock you down again?"

"Did someone let you watch Sailor Moon again, Power-Geek?"

A voice from behind Jon caused him to turn and face the second strangest sight of the day, "Zack will pay for it, trust me..."

"What... the... hell...?"

Jon folded his arms and cocked his head as all the Hardshells stopped what they were doing and stared, one scratched its head quizzically.

"Why are you all wearing skirts? Daniel? Justin?"

Daniel growled, the skirt added to his uniform ruining the effect, "We lost a bet to Tuxedo Moron up there."

"Come on, you guys," J.T. shouted, "Do it right!"

Daniel groaned, as soon as this was over and he could lose the skirt, J.T. would lose his life, "I am... I am Sailor Mercury!"

Justin was thinking the same thing, "I am Sailor Mars..."

Yolanda wasn't wanting to kill J.T., but she wasn't going to stop the others, either, "I am Sailor Venus..."

Jessica, strangely enough was actually enjoying it, if only because it was bothering everyone else, so when she spoke it was with more enthusiam, "I am Sailor Jupiter!"

Amanda was still hiding in the shadows, "I'm not gonna say it!"

"You gotta say it!"

"NO!"

"Say it or I sing it!"

"HELL NO!" Amanda shouted back, unseen in the darkness.

J.T. took a deep breath and began singing, "Fighting evil by moonlight,  
Winning love by daylight,  
Never running from a real fight,  
She is the one named -"

"ALRIGHT, ALRIGHT! GODDESS, I'LL SAY IT!" Amanda stepped out of the shadows and Jon could tell she was glaring at him through the visor, "Laugh and die, Purple Boy..."

She spoke with great reluctance, "I am Sailor Moon... the champion of justice. ...In the name of the moon, I will right wrong and triumph over evil... and that means you..."

Amanda even did the pose, but made sure to point her finger at J.T. instead of Jon.

Jon just shook his head, "Alright, monsters, pack it up! We're outta here!"

"No fight?" Amanda asked, confused.

"Are you kidding? With my luck, Greenie over there is gonna -"

"Jupiter Thunder CRASH!" Jessica shouted, letting loose with a bolt from her Phoenix Bow that struck Jon right in the rear.

"YOW! - DO THAT! I'm outta here!" In a flash of purple light, Jon was gone.

Amanda looked at Jessica, "I hate you."

Then at J.T., "I hate you."

Then stomped her foot, "I hate you BOTH!"

As one, the two answered, "We know, Serena."

"HMPH!"

* * *

In his own apartment, Jon demorphed and dropped into a chair by a desk, grabbing a pen and a piece of paper and began to write...

'As I was saying, I was watching a movie last night - 'Rules of Engagement', Tommy Lee Jones and Samuel L. Jackson - there was a line that got me thinking. When they're talking about what got them to where they are now and how it was all because they flipped a coin...'

* * *

Dreamweaver held an energy blast leveled at J.T.'s battered form, "Time to pay for your wrongs."

The feel of cold metal stopped her from launching the blast as a Blade Blaster was placed to her head, "Starr, you weren't even born with the sense God gave the common dog. Don't you know that's my teammate?"

J.T. smirked under his helmet, "Ha-ha. Ha."

* * *

After Dreamweaver had been dealt with, the two Rangers returned to the Command Center

"It's done... Why don't you head on home, bro? I can watch her until she wakes up," J.T. said, setting his helmet on one of the consoles.

"You sure, J.T.?"

The helmetless Black Ranger nodded, "I'm sure. I'm a night person anyway."

"Okay," the other Ranger said, shrugging, "Who knows, the cause of it all's been beat and there's still a few hours left in the night, maybe I'll even be able to get some sleep."

After his teammated had ridden the lift down to the hanger and his truck that he had parked there, J.T. leaned over Jessica to kiss her before returning her whispered words...

"I love you, too, Kella," he whispered before sitting down and leaning against the cot to fall asleep, still morphed.

* * *

"Sleep well last night?" Jon asked as J.T. walked into Highway 2 the next morning.

"Eh, '_ufa hoale_,'" was J.T.'s reply, "Might ask the same thing of you two."

Jon crossed his arms, "Do you even know what you just said?"

"Yeah, I might not be fluent in Hawai'ian, but I do know that much."

"I hate you," was the reply he got.

"If God had put me on this Earth to be liked, he wouldn't have made me..." J.T. paused, "Me."

"If God had put you here to be liked, we'd have a problem of 'Dogma' proportions," Jon countered with a snort.

"Well, why not? Our lives are already like something out of 'Clerks'..." J.T. glanced at his watch and quickly counted off seconds in a mix of Japanese and German...

"Do you have any new manga releases?"

The Black Ranger tossed Jon a look that he easily read as 'Don't you hate it when I'm right?' before answering the customer, "Check the wall... where it says 'New Release Manga'?"

"Oh... Thanks."

"See what I mean?"

"Yep... Randall."

The Black Ranger chose to take the remark as a compliment, "Hey, 'this job would be great if it weren't for the customers.'"

"Any job would be great if it weren't for the customers," his fellow clerk pontificated wisely.

"...You said it."

Just then, the two Rangers' byplay was interrupted by the sound of six notes that they were coming to loathe.

"Always when I have you wriggling in the crushing grasp of reason," J.T. groaned in annoyance with the device that was rapidly taking over their lives.

"You wouldn't know reason if it bit you in the ass," Jon countered, "Whose turn is it to suffer?"

"Mine, unfortunately..."

Jon smirked, "Have fun dealing with the humans."

J.T. snorted in reply, "Give David and Starr my 'best regards', eh?"

"Preferable in the form of a Blade Blaster-bolt, huh?"

J.T. thought for a moment, "Or twenty."

"I'll buy that."

"Just go."

* * *

Hidden behind the store, Jon crossed his arms, "Unleash that within... Demon Spirit!"

Colored light flared up and surrounded Jon before fading away to leave him in the red suit and gold armor of the Red Literati Demon Ranger. Within seconds afterwards, he had teleported his Literati Rider from the Command Center to him and was off.

* * *

"Hi-YA!"

Jon's arrival to the battle taking place at the quarry outside Scenic City was punctuated with a loud cry and a Rider-mounted kick to a Hardshell.

"Need a hand, dear?"

The purple-garbed Witch Ranger glared at him, "Shut up and fight!"

Jon groaned as he drew his Blade Blaster, the only one of the Rangers to use it on a regular basis, 'Must be menstrual. If I had known that, I would've let J.T. come instead.'

Then he shook his head as she decapitated a Pincher with her Spell Edge, 'But, God, I love her anyway.'

Invasor launched an energy blast at Jon, "Time to die, 'old friend'!"

Jon avoided it by leaping off his Rider and into the air, the blast passing under him before he landed, drawing his Demon Axe, "'Old friend', if I had listened to you, my heart would already be dead!"

"Don't make me laugh!" Invasor scoffed, "Can you just live on love? Power is good, what is friendship?"

"You probably can't understand as you are now," Jon shook his head, "No, I doubt you ever could understand."

"I understand you had a chance to be something great and you threw it away," his opponent roared, firing a series of energy blasts that the Ranger deflected with his weapon.

"I am something great - a great friend, a great lover, a great RANGER!" Jon shouted as he drew his Blade Blaster alongside his Demon Axe and charged.

"A great FOOL!" Invasor countered, knocking away the Demon Axe and twisting around behind Jon to grab him by the throat.

Jon held his Blade Blaster over his shoulder so that the tip was to Invasor's own throat, "You know the saying, 'Fools rush in where Angels dare to tread'... and you're not an angel yourself. You made the mistake of following the advice I was wise enough not to."

A ball of energy formed point-blank to Jon's torso as Invasor spoke, "And gave up everything you could have been when you did. What did your 'wisdom' get you for that?"

"Friends who've got his back, for one thing," Daniel said, the Blue Knight Ranger's sword pointed at one side of Invasor's ribs.

J.T.'s Dragon Sword was a little extra push away from going through Invasor on the other side, "Just call us the six Mouseketeers."

"I hope you meant Musketeers, Magnus."

"Maybe..." The Black Literati Dragon Ranger said, then he groaned as he saw a monster grow in size from one of Dreamweaver's crystals, "Did someone order the extra-large crabcakes?"

Jon put his hand to the coin in his armor, "We need Spiritzord power, NOW!"

"...And preferably a large vat of butter, too," J.T. added, using his free hand to punch Invasor into unconsciousness.

"Shut up, J.T." Amanda and Jon said simultanously.

"Weren't you supposed to be watching the store?" Jon continued.

"Eh, I got Justin to cover for me."

"Poor guy. That was a cruel thing to do, Johnnie," Jessica said, referring to the sole non-Ranger employee of Highway 2.

"All's fair in love and war," J.T. commented, "And I know how to wage both."

Daniel rolled his eyes, "Do you ever shut up?"

"Only when I'm sleeping, eating and kissing Jessica - and the first two aren't set in stone," J.T. managed to get in before the big guns came on the scene.

The Spiritzords arrived in their usual distinctive styles; the Dragon silhouetting itself against the moon before diving down to catch J.T. as he did a Power-boosted jump into the air, the Phoenix streaking through the sky in a blaze of firey speed to do the same with Jessica as she followed suit, and the Siren Spiritzord jumping out of the river and flipping through the air before landing so that it could pick up Yolanda. There was a flash of violet light as Amanda's Spiritzord teleported to land kneeling near where the Rangers stood, the sound of a whirling sword marked the arrival of Daniel's Knight Spiritzord - weapon in hand, and the earth shook as Jon's Demon Spiritzord dropped from the top of a skyscraper to slam its fist against the ground, each Ranger leaping into the air to enter the cockpit of their respective Spiritzord. For the finale, the Dragon did a mid-air transformation to battle mode and landed alongside the other Spiritzords, the Phoenix swooping around to land on the Dragon's shoulder.

"So, eh, we doing this by the rules?" J.T. asked, referring to the message left in the Command Center's computer by Zordon.

"What's this 'by the rules' you speak of, Dragon-boy?"

"Just checking... Initiate Literati Megazord sequence!"

The Demon lifted into the air and its massive right hand rotated onto the chest as the left arm, head, and left leg retracted into the torso while the right leg slid to the center and the lower leg folded up into the upper leg. Simoultaniously, the Battle Mode Dragon Spiritzord's head and right arm and leg retracted into the torso. At the same time, the left leg slid to the middle and folded in half as the dragon-head left arm and the back-plate that its wings were mounted on rotated to the right, placing the arm on the Dragon's chest and leaving the wings mounted on the left side. In mid-air, the Dragon and Demon combined back to back to form the main body and arms of the Literati Megazord, then hatches in the shoulders of the Megazord dropped to permit the hovering Knight Spiritzord to drop in and form the head as the Megazord landed on the Witch and Siren, which were in leg mode, to complete the main body. Finally, the Phoenix looped around and placed its back against the chest of the Megazord, folding wings and head down to form a chestplate. Inside the cockpit, the Rangers were arranged in three rows, J.T. and Jon in the rear, Amanda, Daniel and Yolanda in the middle row, and Jessica was the front row.

"Literati Megazord, online!" The Rangers said, using the activation code that transferred command from the Spiritzords' individual cockpits to the group cockpit of the Megazord.

"'Meowth, that's right!'" J.T. added, followed quickly by Jon stomping on his foot.

"Never mention that... blasphemy... in my presence again," the Red Ranger calmly informed his teammate, "The results will be quite... unpleasant."

"Oh, kinda like your aftershave," the Black Ranger quipped back, rubbing his foot through his uniform boot.

Yolanda sighed, "Do you two ever get tired of this?"

Both of the bantering Rangers shook their head, "No."

"If they weren't always acting like they were about to kill each other," Jessica explained, "They probably would end up killing each other."

"And the way they fight," Amanda threw in, "They'd probably take the rest of us with them when they went."

"We'd have to," J.T. muttered, "Otherwise you'd have to kill yourself to be with Jon and I wouldn't get to..."

Despite his subdued voice, his comment was heard by the other occupants of the Megazord's cockpit. Two hands reached back and slapped J.T., along with a Blade Blaster getting thrown at him by his own girlfriend.

"Bro," Jon whispered, "You forgot that they're females first again."

"Yeah," J.T. whispered back, thanking the Power he had on his helmet, "I realize that."

Daniel sighed watching the Super-Hardshell rampage through the town like Godzilla through Tokyo, "Well, there goes a church... and a school gym - thank God, it's summer... and a gas station, nice explosion with that one... so, we actually gonna fight this thing or keep letting it destroy the city?"

"Hm... I suppose letting it rampage a little longer and destroy a few choice locations is out of the question?"

"YES!" Five voices answered J.T.'s comment.

"Just checking," J.T. said before moving the Megazord into battle; a battle that didn't last long.

* * *

Walking down the sidewalk, Amanda wondered out-loud, "Why did I even go there tonight?"

A moment passed, then she answered herself, "Right, the pool tournament tomorrow. Five hundred dollar prize, a chance to show off, and most importantly, a chance to show J.T. up."

A voice chuckled in the shadows, "I thought showing that moron up was supposed to be MY job, Amanda."

Amanda's cue case and purse dropped to the ground beside her as she went into a ready stance.

"Goddess, Jon, you scared me!" She told him, relaxing.

Stepping out of the shadows, he put his hands on her shoulders, "Something's wrong, I can tell. Want to tell me what it is?"

With a sobbing shudder, Amanda collapsed forward into Jon's arms.

"I hate them... I hate them - I hate the way J.T. and Jessica play 'Happy Family' without even realizing it. I hate that her parents are part of it. Mine left me an emotional wreak, hers' are nuts about her boyfriend. I couldn't take any more, I just couldn't take it - I had to get away..."

Her boyfriend wrapped his arms around her, rubbing her back as he held her, "It's okay, honey, it's okay..."

"It's NOT okay! I was Helen, I drove nations to war and they fought over me for ten years! 'The face that launched a thousand ships'... now look at me; too thin, too short, too..." she pulled back slightly and passed her hands over her chest, "Small."

Jon took her hands in his own and held them to his chest, "One, I like small..."

He passed his eyes over her chest to emphasis his meaning, "They look fake when they get too big, plus with you they're just the right size 'to have and to hold."

She glared at him for the pun, "You need to stop hanging around J.T."

"Two, 'for better, for worse,' 'in sickness and in health,' I think you're just right - the elfin look that gets me and at the same time you're not one of those anorexic skeleton Brittney Speares-wannabes."

Amanda raised an eyebrow, getting more suspicious the more Jon spoke.

"Third..." He took her by surprise when released her hands and scooped her up into his arms bridal-style, "You're not short, you're pint-sized for easy carrying."

Before Jon lowered Amanda back to the ground, he kissed her long and strong. Shaking her head to clear the stars from her eyes, Amanda returned to glaring at him.

"Just what are you up to, Jonathan Paul Maxwell? What's with the phrases from the Catholic vows? For one thing, you know very damn well that not only am I Wiccan, but Jessica's the only Catholic I tolerate and that's because she's -_ in her own words _- a lapsed Catholic."

Jon laughed, causing Amanda to glare at him that much harder.

"I guess I'm about as subtle as a smiling J.T." He commented, referring to the fact that the Black Ranger's normal smile was more of a smirk, but when he was up to something he ended up with a full blown smug grin that Zack had once compared to Halley's Comet as a harbringer of doom.

Her eyes widened as Jon got down on one knee under the light of the streetlamp and the stars and reached into his pocket, pulling out a simple silver band. He couldn't be... he wasn't...

"For all the time I spend around J.T., for all the talking we do, I've never quite mastered the art of speaking like he has - I can't do flowery, fire and brimstone, or anything like that - but I can do simple, and I'm going to do that now. Amanda Violette, Helen may have launched a thousand ships, but for you I'd skip the ship and just walk across the water to fight for you. I'm Agnostic, but if there's anything that would make me think God actually does do more in the universe than just watch it would be that something made me listen to J.T. instead of David that day six years ago. Six years gone and a lifetime to come... if you'll have me..."

Time stopped, crickets chirped, Jon held his breath, hidden behind the bushes J.T. and Jessica suppressed giggles at the scene before them, Amanda's jaw dropped...

He could, he was, and she would.

Amanda's response sent Jon backwards onto the sidewalk as she forcefully hugged him, then slipped the ring onto the index finger of her right hand.

"Oh, great," Jessica moaned quietly, "Now they're gonna be even MORE impossible..."

"Look at it this way, Love," Her boyfriend answered in the same tone, "It could be worse. I could be singing 'Can You Feel The Love Tonight'."

Jessica imitated Amanda, turning her head to glare at J.T., "Correction, YOU'RE impossible by yourself."

"Hey, it was JON's plan," J.T. defended himself, "Personally, I've never seen streetlights as romantic enough for a proposal... well, except if they're overhead while under an umbrella in the rain..."

"Jackass."

"Tomboy."

* * *

Jon crumpled up the sheets of paper that he had been writing on and threw them across the room.

"Nonsense!" He leaned forward and put his arms on the desk, "Just plain... nonsense..."


End file.
